


Each Broken Step Forward

by MCUsic_to_my_ears



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: #coulsonlives (Marvel), Anxiety, Awesome Pepper Potts, BAMF Pepper Potts, BAMF Phil Coulson, Bruce Banner & Tony Stark Feels, Bruce Banner & Tony Stark Friendship, Bruce Banner Angst, Bruce Banner Feels, Bruce Banner Has Issues, Bruce Banner Is a Good Bro, Bruce Banner Needs a Hug, Clint Barton Is a Good Bro, Hurt Phil Coulson, Hurt Tony Stark, Medical Procedures, Medical Trauma, Natasha Romanov Is Not A Robot, Oblivious Steve Rogers, Panic Attacks, Paranoia, Pepper Potts Is a Good Bro, Protective Bruce Banner, Protective Clint Barton, Protective Natasha Romanov, Protective Pepper Potts, Protective Phil Coulson, Protective Steve Rogers, Protective Thor (Marvel), Protective Tony Stark, Somatic Symptoms, Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-17
Updated: 2018-01-17
Packaged: 2019-03-05 21:52:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13396989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MCUsic_to_my_ears/pseuds/MCUsic_to_my_ears
Summary: As time goes on, those close to Tony Stark and Bruce Banner come to learn what trust means between the pair and to question the extent they truly need each other in order to continue.





	1. Pepper

"Hey boys," Pepper whispered. Two pairs of eyes looked up at her. "Time to go." A whining noise leapt to the back of Bruce's throat and she leaned down to pull him into a hug, even as Tony tried to tug Bruce away from her. "On your feet," she ordered softly.

Bruce held onto her tightly as she pulled him up. She brushed a hand through his hair.

"Pep-"

"Quiet for now, sweetheart," Pepper assured Tony. She pulled him up as well, more from practice than sight, holding Bruce close. A bodyguard came forward on Pepper's signal, helping support Tony on the other side. He was careful not to touch Bruce, who still startled even though he'd known Jeremiah for over a month now. She and the guard helped guide her boys toward the car. Bruce immediately curled up into Tony when he landed in the plush seats. He ran the material of Tony's skin-tight bodysuit through his fingers, eyes unfocused. Tony pet Bruce's head softly. Pepper sat to Tony's left pulling both of her boys closer, even if she didn't touch Bruce now. Jeremiah sat in the driver's seat and waited for Pepper to pull seat belts around both of the superheroes and then herself.

J.A.R.V.I.S. linked her phone to the car's bluetooth system and started to play soft jazz music for Bruce as they drove away. Although Bruce was perfectly fine flying to battles, if he'd Hulked out, planes were out of the picture. Even the smallest bumps in the road were enough to unsettle him. Being in a plane was enough to pull Bruce apart, ripping screams out of his throat and dragging tears out of his eyes. They'd instead drive slowly to the closest SI headquarters or house that Tony owned and wait until Bruce calmed down enough to fly back to the tower. As was the protocol.

The nearest safe place this time was the Tower itself, which they were only three hours from Manhattan, which would be on a curfew by the time they got into the city, since attacks of the kind that her boys had just fought in were getting closer and closer to the island, and housing two members of the Avengers tended to get their car passed border checkpoints. Traffic was minimal despite it being what was normally rush hour since the only people on the roads were government personnel, news crews, people trying to find shelter and those who thought they were invincible.

Shudders started to wrack Bruce's tense body, and Pepper thought back to when she and Jeremiah would idly try to turn up the heat in the car. They knew better now. One, that it would only make things worse for Tony, for whom the heat reminding him of the harsh sun and humid caves of his past, and two, that Bruce wasn't cold, his body was instead reacting to the transformation.

Tony's hands tightened around Bruce as he murmured soft encouragements to him, reminding the doctor that he wasn't alone. Pepper rubbed Tony's back, trying to help ground him. The car pulled to a stop at the first checkpoint near the edge of ground zero. A national guard personnel knocked on the driver's side window, which Jeremiah took his time bringing down, waiting for Pepper to alert Tony to the situation.

"Proof of business for all passengers, please," she asked stiffly, shining her flashlight into the pitch black car, better to stave off Bruce's recurring migraines.

"I'm transporting codenames Hulk and Ironman, and the latter's handler." Jeremiah slid the identification papers down from the visor and shared them the officer.

She did a quick scan through the papers, before glancing into the back seat for a second time. "Take care of our heroes," she requested earnestly. The official pushed back from their vehicle, "Let them through," she shouted to her partner, already walking to the next S.H.I.E.L.D. transport. Pepper smoothed Tony's hair as he allowed his hyper-vigilance to curb slightly as they pulled through the barrier. He settled back with Bruce's shaking form gathered in his lap. When Bruce's shudders began to resemble convulsions rather than shivers, Pepper knew that the next phase of Bruce's illogical recovery had started.

"Tony, love," Pepper whispered, "He needs to sit up."

Immediately, her partner jumped into action, shifting Bruce up until his back was nearly flat against the back seat. He leaned against Tony as he started coughing violently.

As best they could tell, the physicist's body did this in order to deal with the feelings of suffocation he'd often felt when Ross had experimented on. These bouts of choking frequently induced a transformation. He'd once confided in Tony that this fashion caused the most nightmares out of all the torture he'd undergone. It was reflected in how long he choked, fighting for air. J.A.R.V.I.S. increased the volume as the next symphony starting up, trying to help ground Bruce just as much as everyone else was. Jeremiah glanced back at Pepper, her hair slightly disheveled and eyes dark. He looked at Tony, his eyes shining with unshed tears as he tried to take in a fortifying breath. He looked at Bruce, who, as his last few pitiful coughs wrenched themselves out of him, watched the guard back with a steady, but unseeing gaze. Jeremiah decreased his speed.

"Tony," Pepper murmured. His eyes flickered over to her, and he gingerly pulled the water bottle from her hand and he took a sip, still stroking Bruce's hair as his partner settled.

Bruce got fairly quiet after his choking, and that was when Tony started to shift around more, starting to feel claustrophobic. Pepper squeezed his hand one last time before she climbed into the passenger seat. Tony moved into her spot almost unconsciously, letting Bruce curl up on himself a bit more. Pepper draped a soft, down blanket over the physicist's back. Tony picked at his nails anxiously, eyeing Bruce and the slowly setting sun, the cold winter day transitioning to night.

Pepper sighed, shaking her head. She started to write her report.


	2. Steve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the weirdness of the posting, hopefully, it's all under control now and all the other versions have stopped floating around!

"Get the fuck away from him! Get away, put your guns down!"

"Tony," Steve asserted softly, but still clearly, so that the engineer couldn't mishear him more than he already was. "Tones, none of these men have weapons. They're only here to ensure you all's safety. You need to let me come over there so I can help Bruce. He's really hurting right now Tony, so you've got to let me take him to somewhere safe, okay?"

Tony shook his head in frustration, squinting into the flashlights pointed at his eyes.

"Get those out of his face," Steve barked. He kneeled down, getting on their level. Tony had Bruce buried in his chest, the former Hulk on Iron Man's left side. Bruce was already choking, but Tony only pulled him tighter to his person, hyper-vigilant and over-protective. Tony could be dangerous when he was like this. Steve knew that much after experiencing Tony holding Pepper with a knife at her throat when he'd been triggered into a flashback, thinking that Coulson was a Ten Rings operative and Pepper someone who that operative would stand down for. Pepper wasn't there, which left it to Steve to get his men on their feet, to figure out what was going on through their heads to get them moving. It didn't seem that Tony was triggered and dissociating right now. Instead, he seemed confused as to who was on his side and who wasn't. Bruce wasn't in the best position then either, but Steve knew that he could be worse off, he'd seen it once or twice before and read about even worse incidents in Pepper's reports. He was going to have to write his own about the two soon enough.

"Tony, you're tired. It's been a long fight, a long day. It's cold outside. Let me bring a blanket over to Bruce. He's shivering. Let me help you take care of him. Please?"

The engineer's hand tapped against his leg, his thoughts flashing over his face. Bruce clutched at Tony's undershirt, his breath fogging up.

"Okay," Tony mumbled, rocking himself, and Bruce by proxy, back and forth. He huffed out short breaths as Steve slowly approached.

"Thank you, Tones," the Captain assured.

He wrapped the shock blanket around the trembling scientist's shoulders, rubbing his back firmly when Bruce reached out with the hand that was holding onto Tony to clutch at Steve, not unlike a newborn child. The soldier used his left, gloved hand to envelop Bruce's ice-cold fingers in his own, rubbing his thumb over Bruce's calloused knuckles.

Tony wasn't too keen on all of that contact though. He kicked Steve away from them, shoving Bruce protectively behind him. Bruce let out a small cry of shock, still in a mild fugue state from his transformation. Tony flinched, but didn't look away from Steve for more than a moment. "Don't you fucking touch him," Tony demanded lowly.

"I won't, Tony. I'm sorry. But he's upset right now, we need to take you both to one of your safe houses. Do you understand?"

Tony watched Steve wearily, reaching back to Bruce to reassure himself that his... partner was still there. Steve wasn't sure what their relationship entailed. But he knew that Tony and Bruce slept in the same cot when at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ and that Pepper gave Bruce the most longing looks whenever she was at team meals with them.

"I don't-" Tony knocked his fidgeting hands against his mouth, trying to form a coherent sentence to send Steve's way. "He's. It's cold. He shouldn't- it's cold."

"You're right, Tony," Steve placated, sliding forward ever so slightly. "Will you let me take Bruce somewhere warm?"

Tony nodded harshly. "It's cold,” he mumbled, gripping his arms tightly. Steve slowly shuffled forward, reconfirming he had Tony's approval repeatedly. When he got close enough, he pulled the scrambling Bruce into his arms, bridal style. Tony grabbed at Steve's pants.

"Come on up, bud," Steve urged. "Come with us to the car."

Tony ran his hands through his hair, looking around at the other agents. He nodded. "It's cold," he asserted with some finality.

"I know. Let's go now."

Tony pushed himself up onto his feet. He brushed his fingers through Bruce's matted curls. He followed Steve to the car waiting for them. The other agents dispersed.

Tony's normal driver, Steve was sure the man's name started with a J, wasn't behind the wheel. Instead, one of the newer members of his security team was there, and Tony pulled out of Steve's grip and stumbled onto the ground so quickly that Steve almost lost his hold on Bruce.

"Tony-" Steve said lowly.

"Are you trying to get me kidnapped?" he whispered harshly.

"Tony, this is a new member of your security team. Her name is Anita Kaplan, she joined the team two weeks ago. You know her. She's been briefed by everyone, including J.A.R.V.I.S.," Steve explained, slowly lowering the fragile doctor into the back seat of the car.

Tony ran his palms over the torn fabric of his undersuit get up anxiously. "I hired her," Tony muttered.

Steve nodded patiently.

"You- I hired her. It's cold and I hired her," the billionaire repeated, slowly pulling himself into the back seat of the car and huddling Bruce close to himself. Steve shut the door behind them before climbing into the front seat. Anita drove off toward the highway.


	3. Thor

"Dr. Banner, could you please take a step back?"

The words passed through the man's ears without meaning. "Friend Bruce," Thor chided softly, pulling the doctor out of the physician's way. "He is working to help our friend," he promised. Bruce didn't respond. When the medical doctor was finished, Bruce pulled himself out of Thor's grasp and took Tony's hand in his own. He bit his lip, but didn't say anything, despite how much Thor knew he wanted to. The warrior set a chair beside Bruce, but didn't force the doctor to sit, and he didn't.

Steve flitted in at one point, informing Thor and, to a lesser extent, Bruce that Clint was out of surgery and was likely going to make a full recovery. "Thank you for informing us. This is cause for joy!" Thor smiled. Bruce hardly glanced up from Tony's twitching eyes.

"He's dreaming," Bruce murmured a while later.

"How do you know?" the god asked.

Bruce rocked a little in his spot before dropping into the chair. "REM. Rapid eye movement,” he rushed to explain. “He won't remember it when he wakes up."

"It won't be long," Thor promised, laying a hand on Bruce's shoulder. He shrugged, but didn't respond, only running his thumb over Tony's hand anxiously.

Sometime later in the night, a nurse had pulled a second cot up next to Tony's and had settled Bruce down onto it, their hands still intertwined, all the tubes and cords connected to Tony smoothed out in the other direction of Bruce. Bruce finally drifted off.

In the morning, Steve brought Bruce tea and Thor coffee, telling them gently that they needed to be taking care of themselves. Bruce blinked up at Steve. "Is he going... When is he supposed to wake up?" the doctor mumbled, fingernails digging into the styrofoam cup.

Steve smiled grimly. "Dr. Gallaspy says that later today they're going to start to lessen the amounts of drugs in his system after checking to see if the inflammation has gone down."

Bruce nodded sharply, fingers tightening around the cup so hard that Steve had to pry it out of his hands so that he wouldn't break it. 

A moment later, Steve spoke, not wanting silence to swallow the inhabitants of the room. “Pepper called. She said that she’ll be on her way here as soon as her next meeting is done in Stockholm. She told me to tell you that she loves you and knows you’re doing the very best for Tony.” 

It was likely that the lovely CEO was referencing Bruce’s decisions as ‘next of kin’. Thor had been there when Bruce was informed about the options of the treatment of their dear friends head injury. Pepper had been unreachable at the time, leaving Bruce to put his dearest into a sleep that he had a chance of never escaping. 

Bruce finally whispered, “Okay” after a long pause. 

"Will you come with me on a walk?" the captain asked softly.

He took in a sharp breath through his nose, shaking his head. "I-" He cut himself off, his grip tightening on Tony.

"Thor will be with Tony the whole time, okay?" Steve gave Thor a meaningful look, for which he did not understand the reasoning.

Pulling his knees up to his chest, Bruce watched Tony for a while.

"Come on," Steve urged. Finally, the doctor relented, unfolding himself slowly and following Steve into the hallway, where Steve wrapped an arm around his shoulder.

Several minutes later, a conglomerate of nurses moved swiftly into the hospital room. One pair moved the bed that Bruce had been sleeping on out of the room and the others began mobilizing Tony's cot, getting ready to take him from the room.

"Pardon, but what are you planning to do with the man of iron?" Thor boomed. The nurses paused, and their leader motioned for them to continue and moved toward the god.

"We're moving him to get an MRI to see if the swelling has gone down enough to bring him out of the coma. Are we going to have a problem?" the nurse asked bluntly.

Thor frowned. "I would like to accompany you," he demanded, remembering Steve's words.

The nurse nodded as if expecting such a request. "Right this way."

 

Steve was holding Bruce in a restraining hug when they returned. There were tears tracks streaking down the brunette's face and his entire being trembled. His hands gripped Steve's arms fiercely, his breathing shuddering.

"I couldn't... he had to come back," Steve apologized, squeezing Bruce tighter to himself.

The head nurse nodded, letting the other's moved Tony back into his place. Bruce looked up, pulling against Steve as recognition flashed across his face. Thor shuffled closer, only for Bruce to lash out at him.

"I’m sorry, bud,” Steve murmured, wrapping Bruce’s arms into a self-hug again. 

Once Tony was locked back in, Steve slowly allowed Bruce to move back to his partner’s side, dropping him into the chair. He held onto the doctor’s shoulders so that he wouldn’t crawl onto the bed. 

“I did not realize that was why they wanted you to leave,” Thor apologized, kneeling down next to Bruce. He rocked a little in his spot. “But no harm came to him while you were away. I never left his side,” he swore. 

“Okay,” Bruce mumbled. Steve squeezed his shoulders reassuringly. He brushed Tony’s hands for a while, calming down considerably. Thor took over Steve’s spot so the captain could go again and make his rounds with his other teammates. 

When the doctor returned, she proclaimed the good news that they were going to begin to bring Tony out of the coma. Bruce smiled and allowed Thor to bring him out of the doctor’s way. 

When Tony woke up, Bruce was still by his side.


	4. Natasha

"Just- just stay here."

"Steve, look at him. He needs to be taken somewhere safe, not another hideout until the next attack."

The Captain sighed, shutting the door behind him. "Tash, I know you're not going to be happy with this, but getting them out of that hell hole is for the best. You both can hold out here, but Tony and Clint aren't going to be safe for much longer. You know that Nat, you know-"

Bruce started coughing violently from where he lay on the bed in the middle of the room.

"Hey, Bruce, bud, it's okay," Steve soothed, crossing the room in a matter of seconds before pulling the shaking man away from the headboard.

"Go," Natasha sighed, taking over his place at the doctor's side. Steve stood up straight, taking a fortifying breath before striding out and softly shutting the door behind him.

Bruce curled in on himself, his hands reaching around for his throat. Natasha pulled them away before he could start choking himself even further. The physicist’s coughing began to be considered retching in the spy’s ears. Natasha quickly sat on the bed beside him and positioned him so that he'd hit a waste bin rather than her, and soon only stomach bile and snot was dripping over his trembling face. Natasha rubbed his back and a last few pitiful coughs jerked through him. She wiped his face off with a warm, wet cloth before leaning him against her chest, stroking his sweaty hair. "We'll be able to go home soon, okay?" A small sob wracked through his body and she shushed him, rocking him slowly. "Just a few more hours, Дорогая." Bruce just shook in her arms, at times reaching out at remembered objects.

The spy pulled her radio to her ear again, static rushing through her ears. "Barton, do you read?" Natasha sighed at the white noise. "Banner is at a twelve currently, and he's not moving position." She felt his forehead, his fever still holding. "Steve's heading your way. He's dead on his feet, but he's bringing you back to HQ. We'll be meeting you within the next forty-eight hours."

Natasha patted Bruce's back when he started sobbing again, more affected than she’d ever experienced before by the memories flooding his mind. He eventually fell asleep, and when he did, she maneuvered him fully onto the bed and set herself to check their perimeter from the roof of the small cabin they were in, lonely and out of the wayward gaze of any officials that happened upon their safe house. When their transport finally came, she did her best to inform the remotely-piloted Quinjet where to land and to maneuver the sickly doctor into a cot. 

“Hey, J.A.R.V.I.S,” Natasha murmured, flexing her fingers around the wheel. 

“Good morning, Miss Romanov.”


	5. Clint

Clint fiddled with the antenna on the radio, staring at the ceiling while Tony paced the floor, jumping at every uncalled for sound, including the shuttering of the small pole on the device. "I don't like this," Tony muttered.

"What about it?"

"The blitz attacks. They're meant to keep all of our teams separated, out of communication. Even with all the extra support, Nat and Steve and Bruce... Thor's off-world, they'd have to know that one of our heavier hitters wouldn't be able to come in." He flinched when another bout of gunfire went off in the distance. 

"Tones," Clint admonished softly, sitting up from where he lay on the top bunk. "Thor's off-world more often than he's on it. You're being paranoid, don't give them more credit than they deserve."

Before Tony could give some half-baked retort, some static came over the radio, then "Banner is... currently... not moving..."

They both turned to the device clutched in Clint's hands, then each other.

"Give me the radio! Give it to me now!" Tony screamed, scrambling over to the beds. Clint hopped down from the bunk and calmly restrained his friend, leaving the radio on the cot. The engineer thrashed in the spies grip, trying to get away. "You're not going to help Bruce right now by shouting like this, Rocket Man," the assassin grunted, an explosion obscuring his words. 

"You don't know him! You have no right!" Tony devolved into tears.

"You’re safe, Tones, you're safe. He's safe too. Nat and Steve're with him, you know they'll keep him safe."

"She can't if he's dead. She can't if he's fucking dead!"

Another static-filled call came over the radio. "Steve's... dead... bringing... back to HQ... within the next forty-eight..."

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit," Tony cursed, all fight leaving him. Clint lowered him to the floor and gently rocked the genius, his fingernails digging into the archer's armor.

"We can't know if that's what she really means, Tony," he soothed. "There was a lot of static in that." But he couldn't bring himself to believe his own words.

Sometime later, Tony allowed the exhaustion to wash over him, and Clint laid him down on the bottom bunk. A knock shook the motel door.

Slipping closer, the spy glanced through the peephole, eyeing Tony to make sure he stayed asleep, before opening the door.

"Thought you were dead," Clint grumbled, locking the door behind him.

Steve frowned. "Why?"

Clint shrugged, "Static," he muttered cryptically. "What's wrong with Banner?" 

Steve rubbed the back of his neck, "He's not in good shape. When I left he was at a twelve, had a fever, was coughing pretty bad." He shook his head. "Nat's with him, they're safe. I'm here to get you back to HQ."

"What's our way out? I've been scouting the area, but we're pretty well surrounded.”

“I have a stealth jet coming in twenty. Is Stark good to move?”

The archer nodded. “He’s pretty shaken right now. He thinks that Banner’s dead. But when he sees you that should hopefully change his mind.”

There was another explosion, this time closer to their hideout. It shook the building hard enough to wake Tony up. 

“Steve?” Tony asked, springing up and pushing the captain a little as if to confirm that he was real. 

“Hey, Tones,” Steve greeted warmly, always having a soft spot for the engineer, even in the heat of battle. “We’re going to be getting out of here pretty soon, okay?” 

Tony nodded sharply, eyes not entirely focusing on the soldier. 

“Bruce is okay, got it? He’s with Natasha right now, they’ll be getting back to HQ very soon.” 

Tony bit his bottom lip. “Okay,” he mumbled. 

Clint and Steve packed up their gear efficiently, letting Tony be to himself until the jet got there. They both knew better than to try and involve him in their discussion of the mission when his walls were down. 

Gunfire began to pop up like wildfire, accompanying the sound of a jet lowering to the ground nearby. “It’s time to move, boys,” Steve grunted. 

Tony was clearly back in the right headspace, or at least had pushed his ‘gooey emotions’ to the back of his mind for the time being, shouldering his pack, which included his armor, and following the other two out the door. 


	6. Phil

“I want you to observe some interactions for me. See if they set off any alarm bells.”

Coulson looked up. “I thought I wasn’t cleared to work for at least another week.”

Fury shrugged. “I pulled some strings,” he said gruffly, “Do you want the file?”

The handler smirked. “Of course.” Fury extended the tablet. 

A live feed was playing, judging by the lack of a bar indicating the length of the video at the bottom of the screen. Immediately, Coulson recognized the inside of a Quinjet. Inside, he observed a human Dr. Banner in the fetal position, clearly awake and in a state of anxiety. Coulson was no junior agent and therefore didn’t scare easily, but the sight of the man containing such a huge force did heighten his awareness of the situation, despite it being several miles from his current location. 

There was no audio, but when Romanov kneeled down next to the doctor, captioned words popped up. 

_ >>We’re almost back to HQ, okay? _

_ >> [inaudible] _

_ >>He’ll be there. Clint just texted me. Tony, him and Steve are already there.  _

_ >> Is he okay? _

_ >> You know Tony. Man’s made of iron.  _

_ >> [inaudible] … that phrase.  _

Coulson saw Natasha purse her lips. 

_ >> I’m sorry. _

It took a lot for the Black Widow to apologize in earnest. 

“Were these the interactions you were referencing?” the agent asked his superior, keeping his eyes on the tablet as Natasha fiddled with something out of the view of the camera. 

Fury shook his head. “You’ll know what I’m talking about. Keep an eye on it, I’ll be back after a meeting.”

Coulson nodded briskly, watching the spy in the video feed return to the pilot’s seat in the jet, landing the plane expertly, her brief conversations with those helping direct her towards a smooth transition from air to ground being transcribed on the bottom of the screen. The doctor aboard didn’t move during the end of the flight. 

Medical staff rushed onto the jet, descending on the sickly looking physicist, but they were quickly pushed away by a furious Tony Stark. Barton followed him in, exchanged a few  _ inaudible  _ words with Natasha, before their attention turned to the two scientists. 

_ >> You have no idea what’s going on, so don’t fucking touch him until you do. _

_ >> Mr. Stark, we are trying to move Dr. Banner to the medical bay so that- _

_ >> See, that’s where you’re going wrong. Brucie doesn’t need to be locked up in some med bay.  _

Even though his outburst was only communicated through text, Coulson could hear Tony’s petulance. 

The medical personnel who had been speaking took a step forward. 

_ >> What do you suggest, Mr. Stark? _

_ >> He should. Let me.  _

_ >> Tony, let’s clear the jet for five minutes. We’ll wake Bruce up, talk with him for a minute, then go back to medical, okay? _

Clint put a hand on Tony’s shoulder reassuringly, but it was shrugged off. The bedridden agent hadn’t realized that Dr. Banner was asleep, simply believing him to be caught in his own mind. 

_ >> Okay. _

The medical staff was ushered off the jet, leaving the scientists, the spies, and Captain Rogers, who had snuck on behind the billionaire without Coulson noticing. Natasha was making quick work with an unknown device below Dr. Banner, while the others spoke over each other in argument, garbling any captioning of their speech. Then, the red-headed assassin lifted a nearly empty IV bag up and hooked into onto its station on the wall. Why it had been close to the floor before, Coulson had no idea. 

Immediately, Stark was on his knees by the doctor’s side, not quite touching. 

_ >> Hey, big guy. _

_ >> Tone. _

Banner looked around in a panic, not recognizing his surroundings in the least.

_ >> Hey, it’s okay. We’re at HQ right now. We wanted to talk to you before any of the big, scary medical people tried to cart you off and give you a. Check up. _

The engineer was clearly in element comforting the physicist. They embraced for several seconds, breathing each other in before the captain spoke again. 

_ >> Bruce, we’re all going to report to medical right now. Do you want an escort from the medical staff, or do you feel comfortable without one? We’ll all be there with you.  _

_ >> I. I’m good. I can. Go. By myself.  _

_ >> That’s good to hear. _

Steve and Tony worked to get Bruce onto his feet while Clint disappeared off the jet, likely to go and move the medical staff away from the still shell-shocked doctor. Natasha did a final check around the jet, their unspoken communication impressing Coulson to no end. This was not the mess of solitary vigilantes and pacifists he’d met long ago. 

 

The footage shut off after the team entered medical, likely due to privacy reasons. But before Coulson could so much as twiddle his thumbs, a low ranking agent, possibly even an intern, entered the room. 

“Sir, I’m supposed to inform you that you have been cleared to watch a debrief and I’m here to take you there now.”

Coulson smiled, “Lead the way,” he requested, sliding his shoes on and praying that the months of physical therapy were finally coming to an end. 

The girl left him after he took a seat on the opposite side of a one-way mirror which showed a conference room. 

Soon after, Agent Hill began setting up for a meeting. Captain Rogers trickled in a few minutes later, followed closely by Coulson’s old charges. They all were seated when the scientists finally entered the room. Dr. Banner still looked fairly dazed, but Tony was on high alert, eyes darting. 

Hill began the meeting just as the door into the observation room opened. 

“Director,” Coulson acknowledged, standing. 

Fury waved his hand flippantly, before turning his attention in on the meeting. 

“The stations were here, here, here and here,” Natasha explained, pointing to different spots on a map projected into the center of the table. Clint noted them manually through the tablet in front of him. 

“We had touchdowns in these six locations,” Clint added, smirking a little, placing battle symbols on the map as he spoke. 

Hill reached over and zoomed in on Natasha’s end of the map. 

Coulson smiled softly at his old charge’s sense of humor, tuning out her questions for a moment while he watched the younger man place destruction markers on the map. He frowned and turned his attention to Natasha’s account. “At three hundred, it became clear the Hulk was necessary to the battle and Dr. Banner exited the safe house,” the red-haired assassin continued. Coulson saw Tony’s grip tighten on Bruce’s hand under the table. 

“You see it?”

Coulson nodded. 

Fury turned down the volume on the speakers. “What do you think?”

The handler inclined his head. “They’ve changed a lot since I last saw them,” he intoned. 

The director nodded. 

“I’m ready to go in.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my beta, Mxy, and to moonandstars30, who pointed out my posting error! You both rock!


End file.
